Corporate Whistleblower Center Now Urges Employees of DOD Contractors in Iraq/Afghanistan to Call About Rewards if Their Employer is Overbilling for Hours or Services Never Rendered

The Corporate Whistleblower Center says, "We are urging employees of contractors providing services to the Department of Defense in Iraq or Afghanistan to call us anytime at 866-714-6466 if their employer is involved in any of the following types of wrongdoing or fraud

Contractor Steven Gern claims he was removed from Iraq after a testimonial on Islam he released last week went ultra-viral.

Gern, a former Marine and current security contractor, posted a video to his Facebook in which he described a purported conversation between himself and local Iraqis regarding how an unaccompanied, unarmed American might be treated by locals.

The Department of State warns U.S. citizens against all travel to Iraq. Travel within Iraq remains very dangerous, and the ability of the Embassy to assist U.S. citizens facing difficulty is extremely limited. This supersedes the Travel Warning dated July 6, 2016.

U.S. citizens in Iraq are at high risk for kidnapping and terrorist violence. Numerous terrorist and insurgent groups are active in Iraq, including Da'esh (also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL.) Such groups regularly attack both the Iraqi security forces and civilians. Anti-U.S. sectarian militias may also threaten U.S. citizens and western companies throughout Iraq.

The United States and Japan signed an agreement last week that could end Status of Forces Agreement coverage for some military contractors without specialized skills. The SOFA supplemental agreement negotiations were made public last year, shortly after a contractor working in Okinawa was arrested on charges that he raped and killed a 20-year-old Japanese woman.

While SOFA does not prevent U.S. personnel who commit crimes off-base from being prosecuted, it does in many cases allow them to remain in U.S. custody pending trial.

SIGAR: ‘High-Risk List’ Shows Continued Erosion in Afghanistan Reconstruction

Among real Afghan security forces there are roughly tens of thousands of fellow soldiers on the roster that don’t exist. Soldiers struggle to receive pay and forces are barely able to retake strategic areas of the country after they fall to insurgents.

And the Taliban has made it a practice to buy equipment and supplies like fuel and ammunition directly from Afghan soldiers because it’s easy and less expensive, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction outlined in a report on stabilization efforts at high risk of failing.

The company has undergone a series of rebranding efforts over the years as an apparent means of distancing itself from overtly toxic connotations.

Prince’s Financial Times bio discreetly identifies him as simply “a former US Navy SEAL and executive chairman of Frontier Services Group,” a Hong Kong-headquartered entity. According to its website, FSG offers “security and logistics services in frontier markets”.

In an investigation by The Intercept, Prince’s activities at FSG were reported to include endeavouring to sell weaponised crop dusters in Africa as part of “what one colleague called his ‘obsession’ with building his own private air force”. As with many of Prince’s operations, a facade of legality has often proved elusive.

Private contractors can provide immediate relief to a conflict-torn region, but run the risk of damaging the very fabric of the international state system in the long run.

BY: TANYA ROHATGI — As President Barack Obama’s time in the White House draws to a close, critics and supporters alike are trying to condense his often disjointed foreign policy manoeuvres into a coherent doctrine. A major facet of this Obama doctrine – perhaps more fundamental than his use of drones, his reservations about leaning on long-established alliances, and his ‘pivot’ away from the Middle East and to Asia – has been a much-touted disdain for hawkish intervention and consequently, his own ‘light footprint’ in the soils of conflict.

Who guards the guards?

BY: Om Astha Rai — Dhan Singh Dhami could have been at his duty station as a security guard in Afghanistan by now, but a four-month ban on Nepalis working in the war-torn country delayed his plan.

After the death of 13 Nepalis guarding the Canadian Embassy in a terrorist attack in Kabul in June, the government prohibited Nepalis from going to Afghanistan. Dhami was stuck in Kathmandu, and rues: “If it were not for the ban, I would have earned Rs 600,000 by now. I lost three months’ salary,” he said.

The Department of State has selected the Miller Hull Partnership, LLP of Seattle, Washington for the design concept of the new U.S. Embassy project in Guatemala City, Guatemala.

The multi-building complex will be situated on a 9.4-acre site in the Zona 16 neighborhood, and will include a chancery building, Marine Security Guard Residence, and support buildings. The new complex will provide Embassy employees with a safe, secure, sustainable, and modern workplace.

According to the latest GAO report, The United States has engaged in multiple efforts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria since declaring a global war on terrorism in 2001. Currently, in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, U.S. forces are deployed under force management levels set by the administration. Force management levels and similar caps limit the number of U.S. military personnel deployed to a given region and have been a factor in military operations at least since the Vietnam War. Force management levels were also used to shape the drawdowns of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. In June 2016, the President announced that the force management level for Afghanistan is 9,800. According to DOD, in September 2016 the United States authorized additional troops for Iraq and Syria, for a total of 5,262.

Pentagon Spending on Contractor Services Could Take a Hit Under Trump Administration

By Jon Harper — Spending on contractor services could fall victim to other defense spending priorities under the Trump administration, according to a market forecast by the Professional Services Council.

Although President-elect Donald Trump suggested on the campaign trail that he might pursue a big defense buildup, budget constraints will force difficult choices even if spending caps are eased or lifted, said an industry insider who helped put together the council’s latest “Vision Federal Market Forecast.”

Blackwater founder and former Navy SEAL Erik Prince told Breitbart News Daily on SiriusXM that according to one of his “well-placed sources” in the New York Police Department, “The NYPD wanted to do a press conference announcing the warrants and the additional arrests they were making” in the Anthony Weiner investigation, but received “huge pushback” from the Justice Department.

Prince began by saying he had no problem believing reports that the FBI was highly confident multiple foreign agencies hacked Hillary Clinton’s private email server.